The present invention relates to drawer slides and the mounting of attachments to drawer slides. The invention specifically relates to an improved drawer slide and drawer slide accessory mounting bracket.
Telescopic slides for file drawers and the like are often desirable for use in cabinets and other rack mounted applications. Such slides permit access to the interior of the drawer. The slides maintain the drawer in a horizontal position regardless of how far the drawer is withdrawn from the cabinet. The slides are also useful in the mounting of extendable shelves in cabinets.
A typical drawer slide has two or three slide members slidably secured to each other by sets of ball bearings held be retainers riding in raceways formed on the slide members. Two element telescopic slides normally include an outer slide member and an inner slide member. For purposes of exposition, the outer slide member is connected to the cabinet or enclosure, although it is recognized that the inner slide member may instead be so connected. When the outer slide member is connected to the cabinet or enclosure, the slide member affixed to the drawer is the inner slide member. The slide members are often slidably connected through the use of ball bearings which are in rolling engagement with raceways formed on the slides. A three element telescopic slide will additionally normally include an intermediate slide member slidably connected to and between the outer and inner slide members.
A typical drawer will often have two slides securing the drawer to the cabinet or enclosure, with the slides attached to each of the outside of the vertical side walls of the drawer. The vertical side walls of the drawer, however, may be of a material inappropriate for attaching slides thereto. Additionally, the vertical side wall of a shelf is often of insufficient dimension or provides insufficient stability for mounting a drawer slide. Also, for aesthetic reasons it may be preferable to mount the shelf over the drawer slide to provide a clean and sleek look to the cabinet as a whole.
The drawer slide may be provided a flange extending from one of the slide members to allow for such mounting of a shelf or drawer. For reasons of decreasing manufacturing costs and increasing the usefulness of a particular slide, however, an accessory is generally mounted to one of the slide members, with the accessory providing a flange for the mounting of a shelf or drawer. Thus, there is a need for a drawer slide and drawer slide accessory, such as a mounting flange for shelf applications, in which the accessory and the drawer slide can be easily and securely mated.
The present invention provides a drawer slide member and a drawer slide accessory or attachment. The drawer slide accessory is attached to the drawer slide member by placing tabs located on the accessory in apertures in a vertical web of the drawer slide member. In particular, the accessory may be a shelf mount, or undermount, bracket comprised of a vertical mounting flange and a horizontal support flange. Two hook-shaped support tabs, or bayonets, astraddle a lock tab extend from one side of the mounting flange. The lock tab is mounted on a flexing finger inset in the mounting flange to provide for increased ease of removal of the shelf mount bracket from the drawer member. The drawer slide member has an aperture to receive the lock tab in the drawer slide member""s vertical web, as well as two guide apertures adapted to receive the support tabs. The guide apertures have a large insertion opening with angled sides leading to a slot for securely engaging the support tabs. Thus the drawer mount or other accessory can be easily and securely removably mated to the drawer slide member.
Many of the attendant features of this invention will be more readily appreciated as the same becomes better understood by reference to the following detailed description and considered in connection with the accompanying drawings in which like reference symbols designate like parts throughout.